With God’s help, the missionary effort of the Metropolis of Kinshasa continues. It continues with hardships, joys, sorrows and agonies.
Living in the heart of Africa you feel the pain of the people, their anguish, their complaint. You see so many people, children, young and old, who have not known the true God, who have not become members of the true Church, of Orthodoxy, the only one that has not changed anything, not even the slightest thing of what Christ said, of what he handed down to the Holy Apostles and they to their successors, and which reaches unadulterated until today, two thousand years ago. It grieves so many people to remain in the darkness of magic and heresies.
What a responsibility we all have who enjoy the gifts of the Holy Spirit, who are rich in theological sermons, saints, examples, spiritual books, Churches, Monasteries, Spiritual Centres, ecclesiastical institutions, religious televisions and radios, priests, Divine Liturgies! What an apology we will give on the day of our personal judgment and the one to come, when we hear from Christ “I have been fed by the Monastic Truth, by the water of Heaven and you have not given me water to drink”. What shall we say when he says to us, “I was naked and you did not clothe me with the heavenly garment, the white robe of baptism”? What shall we say when he says, “I was hungry and you did not give me the Lamb of Life to eat”? What shall we say when he tells us that “I was a stranger and you did not accustom me, you did not take me in to the house of God”? What will we say when he tells us “I was sick, afflicted with spiritual diseases and imprisoned in the devil’s bondage and you did not visit me to heal me and set me free”? In the face of every native, I was me. Whatever you do to him, you do to me. Your salvation and your entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven depends on the love you show to that native.
This is what we feel when we pass the poor villages with their grassy huts or walk through the densely populated slums of Kinshasa, like Kingasani. where a parish grows in the yard of a house. The number of congregants and worshippers is constantly growing. They gather for Vespers, Holy Mass, arrange the house room, and have Divine Liturgies each week. Some are moved, some money is found, but not enough to build their church. They beg God to find merciful people to help them have their Temple. To have their baptismal font so that the indoctrinated can be baptized, so that the souls can be saved. Who can help raise the money to help make the most populous and poorest neighborhood in Kinshasa the Orthodox Church?
The epidemic found us unprepared. Now that it was needed our little hospital could not offer its help to the poor natives.
The ground floor is waiting for the doctors to come from Greece to operate. The first floor still needs work.
A few days ago the great benefactor of the Metropolis, the now blessed Sumela Terzani, passed away to Heaven. She activated her friends and built in the interior of Kogo, in Luembo, the wonderful Church of St. Panteleimon. She mobilized her friends and built the first floor of our small hospital “St. Panteleimon”. She sold her house and started and built the first floor of our hospital in honor of Our Lady of Sumeria. She did not have time to complete the work, the money ran out, she struggled to persuade acquaintances to continue the work. She didn’t have time. God took her to himself. But who will help now to complete the paediatric ward, the operating theatre, the wards, the nurses’ and doctors’ training room? Who will help drill a well so that he can have clean water of his own? Who’ll help make the utility rooms?
The project is waiting to be completed. The poor natives are waiting for it to work to heal. Who can help?
The anxiety about the operation of schools is growing.
And first and foremost for the operation of the Theological School. The school that prepares the clergy, the catechists, the teachers, the singers, the church officers.
Many efforts are being made to train new missionaries. Orthodox teachers from Greece, Europe, Europe, Australia, Africa teach with patience and enthusiasm. Many efforts are being made by the Metropolis to continue its operation. Much anxiety and concern. But the fruits are good and many. New missions are being opened by its clergy and lay graduates. New people are coming to know and enter the Orthodox Church through holy baptism. The theological school is working for the past and the future of missionary work, the salvation of the natives, their entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.
It must continue to work. But it requires constant care, money, monitoring, anxiety to deal with the problems. 70 young people are studying. 70 new members of the Orthodox Church in Kogo are being prepared.
Our schools in the forests, in our villages were going through great difficulty. Teachers cannot be paid, operating expenses cannot be met. The number of children is increasing, many parents want to send their children. Efforts are being made to provide good education to the students, that’s why they prefer our schools. But we are struggling to cover the teachers’ salaries and operating expenses every month. But we must fight to keep children from being illiterate.
Recently we went on a tour and stopped in the village of Kikwit-Bunti, where we have a primary and secondary school. Very poor people, living in grass huts. Our school also has a sewing and construction department. They should learn some work to cope with life. They were learning sewing without a sewing machine. The sewing machine we used to go to needed electricity, but there’s no electricity there, to run on a generator it needed fuel, enough expenses, they couldn’t afford it. Now we took two hand sewing machines and delivered them to the school. Now they’ll be able to practice. Their joy was great. They sang, danced, gave thanks.
The effort for the operation of the Radio Station of the Metropolis, “The Voice of Orthodoxy” continues.
After the big problems we had with the fall of the pylon of our radio station, a new struggle for the continuation of its operation began. Our whole anxiety and effort was not to stop sending the orthodox word of the “Voice of Orthodoxy” to the homes of all people. A new pylon was temporarily rented in another part of Kinshasa, the equipment was moved and it continued to broadcast, no longer as before 4 hours in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, but 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day. Without interruption. This of course requires effort and money, monitoring and agony, but the word of God is heard in Kinshasa of 12 million people. But who will help us cover the expenses of its operation? Who will understand how important it is to hear the true and Orthodox word of God in every home? Who will understand how important it is that our indigenous brothers and sisters come to know Orthodoxy? Who will understand that they must come out of the darkness? How will they come to know the True Christ as he is and not as the heretics make him up and present him? How will our brothers and sisters be saved? What account will we give to our Christ and God who said to us, “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…”?
✝ Kinshasa Nikiforos
(1949-2021)
